new to high power and have ?'s

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I have recently fell in love with the single action trigger and am interested in the high powers. How is the durability and reliability compared to DA/SA pistols? Could $550 get me a decent high power? Pardon my ignorance,please. Thanks.

I have recently fell in love with the single action trigger and am interested in the high powers. How is the durability and reliability compared to DA/SA pistols? Could $550 get me a decent high power? Pardon my ignorance,please. Thanks.

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It's been said that when John Brwning designed the 1911 he hit a Home Run. When he designed the Hi Power, he hit a Grand Slam. I happen to agree.

I myself think it's the finest 9mm or .40 S&W platform out there today and it's reliability is second to none as long as you have a Mk III. The MkIII is any of the newer ones, but the production date escapes me at the moment, and it's too late and I'm too tired to look it up right now before going to bed.

As far as durability, change the recoil spring every 1,200 to 1,500 and you should be OK for the rest of your life. I myself carry and shoot a .40 S&W Hi Power off duty and change the recoil; spring every 1,000 rounds. It's cheap insurance.

I saw a 9mm MkIII for sale, looked seldom fired and well cared for, for sale in a local Pawn Shop. If I hadn't spent all my extra money on a Colt AR it would've gone home with me that day. The price? IIRC was $470 + Tax.

I recently saw a HP for sale and it was extremely used. A lot of that fantastic blueing was gone. The asking price was $550.00. I recently purchased a "used" HP that looked to me like it had never been fired. It was/is absolutely perfect to the point where I'm in a quandry as to whether or not I should shoot it. I was $740.00 OTD. I finally figured someone was going to shoot this gun and it might as well be me. Shot 100 rounds, cleaned it and put it back in the box. This pricing is in the mid-west.

Update: I did order and receive Stephen Camp's Hi-Power book, and it came within a few days. It's quite informative and of very high quality. So, it would appear his wife (Sandy) is carrying on the business as before. Since she's listed as the "editor" of the book, I suspect she was handling this end of the business anyway.

I wonder if this book will still be available now that Mr. Camp has departed us?

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Oh man, I did not know that. What a bummer. I love his website. I even e-mailed him once and he was a very nice man. I really hate to hear that. I'm pretty sure that he has gone to a better place though. He will certainly be missed.

Never wanting to miss and opportinity to show one of my guns, here's my latest. As the owner of several Hi Powers, I decided that I'd like to have something that's not available in factory configuration. Since I had an aluminum alloy framed Hi Power that was in below par cosmetic condition, I decided to use it as the base for my creation. I decided that I'd like to have it made as reliable as possible, dings and scratches removed, a trigger job with the magazine disconnect removed, hard chromed, and big white dot sights installed. After some reading and a conversation with him, I decided to have Don Williams do the work. Here's a picture of the pistol before work started.

The thing that most impressed me about Don was what he told me didn't need to be done. He told me that I didn't need to have anything done to the barrel and I didn't need to have anything done as far as reliability goes because the Mark II Hi Powers are already extremely reliable.

Don machined the slide for and installed as set of Novak sights with big white dots for my less than sharp visioned eyes, did a trigger job, fabricated an extended safety, cleaned up all the dings/scratches, and had the pistol hard chromed by Metalife. For those who think that you can't hard chrome aluminum, it is possible. The trick I'm told is that the frame had to be nickel plated prior to the hard chrome being applied. Here is the final result.

I recently saw a HP for sale and it was extremely used. A lot of that fantastic blueing was gone. The asking price was $550.00. I recently purchased a "used" HP that looked to me like it had never been fired. It was/is absolutely perfect to the point where I'm in a quandry as to whether or not I should shoot it. I was $740.00 OTD. I finally figured someone was going to shoot this gun and it might as well be me. Shot 100 rounds, cleaned it and put it back in the box. This pricing is in the mid-west.

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thats where I'm at!!! just got a "new" 1980 Hi-Power and not sure if I want to shoot or sell it

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